The conversation between St. Seraphim and Nikolai Alexandrovich Motovilov (1809–1879) about the purpose of Christian life took place in November 1831 in the forest near the Sarov Monastery and was recorded by Motovilov. The manuscript was discovered 70 years later in the papers of Nikolai Alexandrovich's wife, Elena Ivanovna Motovilova.
The apparent simplicity of the conversation is deceptive: the sermon is delivered by one of the greatest saints of the Russian Church, and the listener is a future ascetic of the faith, healed from an incurable illness by Seraphim's prayer. It was to N.A. Motovilov that St. Seraphim bequeathed before his death the material care of his Diveyevo orphans and the founding of the Seraphim-Diveyevo Monastery.
It was Thursday. The day was overcast. Snow was about a quarter of the way down, and a thick dusting of sleet was falling on top, when Father Seraphim began talking to me in his nearby field, near that same "near hermitage" opposite the Sarovka River, near a mountain that runs close to its banks.
He placed me on the stump of a tree he had just cut down, and he himself squatted opposite me.
“The Lord revealed to me,” said the great elder, “that in your childhood you earnestly desired to know what the purpose of our Christian life was, and you repeatedly asked many great spiritual figures about this...
I must say here that this thought has been nagging at me since I was 12 years old, and I have indeed approached many clergy with this question, but the answers have been unsatisfactory. The elder was unaware of this.
"But no one," Father Seraphim continued, "has told you this definitively. They told you: go to church , pray to God, obey God's commandments, do good—that's the goal of the Christian life. And some were even indignant at you for preoccupying yourself with unholy curiosity, and told you: don't seek anything higher than yourself. But they didn't speak as they should have. Now I, poor Seraphim, will explain to you what that goal truly is."
Prayer, fasting, vigil, and all other Christian works, however good they are in themselves, are not the sole goal of our Christian life, although they serve as necessary means for achieving it. The true goal of our Christian life is the acquisition of the Holy Spirit of God. Fasting, vigil, prayer, almsgiving, and every good deed done for Christ's sake are means for acquiring the Holy Spirit of God. Note, Father, that only a good deed done for Christ's sake brings us the fruits of the Holy Spirit. Anything not done for Christ's sake, however good, brings us no reward in the life to come, nor does it bestow God's grace in this life. This is why the Lord Jesus Christ said, " Whoever does not gather with Me scatters" ( Matthew 12:30 ). A good deed cannot be called anything other than gathering, for although it is not done for Christ's sake, it is nevertheless good. The Scripture says: In every nation the one who fears Him and does what is right is accepted by Him ( Acts 10:35 ).
And, as we see from the sequence of sacred narrative, this "doer of righteousness" is so pleasing to God that an Angel of the Lord appeared to Cornelius the centurion, who feared God and practiced righteousness, while he was praying and said, " Send men therefore to Joppa and call Simon, who is called Peter. He is staying with a certain Simon the tanner, whose house is by the sea. He will speak to you words by which you and your household will be saved" ( Acts 10:5-6 ). Thus, the Lord uses all His divine means to provide such a person with the opportunity to not lose a reward for his good deeds in the rebirth of life. But to do this, we must begin here with true faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, Who came into the world to save sinners, and by acquiring the grace of the Holy Spirit, Who brings the Kingdom of God into our hearts and paves the way for us to attain the bliss of the life to come. But this pleasingness to God of good deeds not done for Christ's sake ends there: Our Creator provides the means for their accomplishment. It remains for man to either carry them out or not. This is why the Lord said to the Jews: " If you were blind, you would have no sin; but now that you say we see, your sin remains" ( John 9:41 ). If, like Cornelius, a man takes advantage of the pleasingness to God of his deeds not done for Christ's sake, and believes in His Son, then such a deed will be imputed to him as if done for Christ's sake, and solely for his faith in Him. Otherwise, a man has no right to complain that his good deeds were not put to good use. This never happens when doing any good for Christ's sake, for good done for His sake not only secures a crown of righteousness in the life of the age to come, but also fills a person with the grace of the Holy Spirit in this life, and, as it is said: "For God does not give the Spirit by measure. The Father loves the Son and has given all things into His hands" ( John 3:34–35 ).
So, your Godliness! The true goal of our Christian life lies in the acquisition of this Spirit of God, and prayer , vigil, fasting, almsgiving, and other virtues performed for Christ's sake are only means to the acquisition of the Spirit of God.
"What about acquisition?" I asked Father Seraphim. "I don't understand this."
"Acquisition is the same as acquisition," he replied. "You understand what acquiring money means, don't you? So is acquiring the Spirit of God. You, Your Godliness, understand what acquisition is in the worldly sense? The goal of ordinary people's lives is the acquisition, or making, of money, and for nobles, it's furthermore the attainment of honors, distinctions, and other rewards for service to the state. Acquisition of the Spirit of God is also capital, but a blessed and eternal one, and it, like monetary, official, and temporal capital, is acquired through the same, very similar means. God the Word, our Lord the God-Man Jesus Christ , likens our life to a marketplace and calls the work of our life on earth a purchase, and says to all of us: " I will buy; continue until I come... redeeming the time, because the days are evil" ( Luke 19:13 ; Eph. 5:16 ), that is, seize the time to obtain heavenly blessings through earthly goods. Earthly goods are virtues done for Christ's sake, which bring us the grace of the All-Holy Spirit.
In the parable of the wise and foolish virgins, when the fools lacked oil, it says, " Go ye rather to them that sell it, and buy it for yourselves" ( Matthew 25:9 ). But when they bought it, the doors of the bridal chamber were already shut, and they could not enter. Some say that the foolish virgins' lack of oil signifies a lack of good deeds during their lifetime. This understanding is not entirely correct. How could they possibly be lacking in good deeds, since, even though they were foolish, they were still called virgins? After all, virginity is the highest virtue, as a state equal to the angels, and could serve as a substitute for all other virtues in itself.
I, a wretched one, believe that they lacked precisely the grace of the All-Holy Spirit of God. While practicing virtues, these virgins, in their spiritual folly, assumed that the only spiritual purpose is to practice virtues alone. They believed that by practicing virtue, they had accomplished God's work, but whether they had received the grace of the Spirit of God, whether they had attained it, was of no concern to them. Concerning such ways of life, relying solely on the practice of virtues without thoroughly examining whether they bring the grace of the Spirit of God, the patristic writings say: "There is another path which seems good in the beginning, but its end leads to the depths of hell."
Anthony the Great, in his letters to monks, speaks of such virgins: "Many monks and virgins have no understanding of the differences in the wills operating in man, and do not know that three wills operate within us: the first is God's, all-perfect and all-saving; the second is our own, human, that is, if not destructive, then not saving; the third is demonic, completely destructive. And it is this third, enemy will that teaches a person either not to perform any virtues, or to perform them out of vanity, or for the sake of good alone, and not for the sake of Christ. The second—our own will—teaches us to do everything to gratify our lusts, or even, as the enemy teaches, to do good for the sake of good, not paying attention to the grace it acquires. The first—the will of God and all-saving—consists solely in doing good for the sole purpose of acquiring the Holy Spirit, an eternal treasure, inexhaustible, and incapable of being fully and worthily valued by anything. This acquisition of the Holy Spirit is precisely what the foolish virgins lacked. They were called fools for this very reason: they forgot the essential fruit of virtue, the grace of the Holy Spirit, without which no one can or can have salvation, for: "By the Holy Spirit every soul is nourished and exalted by purity, and enlightened by the Trinitarian unity of the sacred mystery."
The Holy Spirit Himself dwells in our souls, and this very dwelling in our souls of Him, the Almighty, and the co-abiding with our spirit of His Triune Unity is granted to us only through our utmost acquisition of the Holy Spirit, which prepares in our soul and flesh the throne of God and the all-creative co-abiding with our spirit, according to the immutable word of God: I will dwell in them and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people ( 2 Cor. 6:16 ). This is the oil in the lamps of the wise virgins, which could burn brightly and continuously, and those virgins with these burning lamps were able to await the Bridegroom, who came at midnight, and enter with Him into the chamber of joy. The fools for Christ, seeing their lamps go out, went to the marketplace to buy oil, but were unable to return in time, for the doors were already closed. The marketplace is our life; the doors of the bridal chamber, closed and not admitting the Bridegroom, are human death ; the wise virgins and the fools for Christ are Christian souls; the oil is not works, but the grace of the All-Holy Spirit of God received through them within our nature, transforming it from this into this, that is, from corruption into incorruption, from spiritual death into spiritual life, from darkness into light, from the cave of our being, where passions are bound like cattle and wild beasts, into the temple of the Divine, into the most radiant chamber of eternal joy in Christ Jesus, our Lord, Creator and Redeemer and Eternal Bridegroom of our souls.
How great is God's compassion for our misfortune, that is, our inattention to His care for us, when God says: "Behold, I stand at the door and knock" ( Rev. 3:20 ), meaning by the door the course of our life, not yet closed by death ! Oh, how I wish, Your Godliness, that in this life you would always be in the Spirit of God! For the Lord will judge us according to whatever He finds us. Woe, great woe, if He finds us burdened with the cares and sorrows of this life, for who can endure His wrath, and who can stand before His face? This is why it is said: "Watch and pray, lest ye enter into temptation" ( Matt. 26:41 ; Mark 14:38 ), that is, lest ye be deprived of the Spirit of God, for vigilance and prayer bring us His grace. Of course, every virtue done for the sake of Christ gives the grace of the Holy Spirit, but prayer gives it most of all , because it is always in our hands as a tool for acquiring the grace of the Spirit.
You might, for example, want to go to church, but either there isn't one, or the service has ended; you might want to give alms to a beggar, but there isn't one, or you have nothing to give; you might want to preserve your virginity, but you lack the strength to do so, either because of your constitution or because of the enemy's wiles, which you, due to your human weakness, are unable to resist; you might want to perform some other virtue for Christ's sake, but you lack the strength, or you can't find the opportunity. And this doesn't apply to prayer at all: everyone always has the opportunity to do it—rich and poor, noble and simple, strong and weak, healthy and sick, righteous and sinner.
How great is the power of prayer, even for a sinful person, when it is offered with all his heart, judge by the following example from Holy Tradition: when, at the request of a desperate mother who had lost her only son, snatched away by death, a harlot wife who had crossed her path and who had not yet even been cleansed from her recent sin, touched by the mother’s desperate grief, cried out to the Lord: “Not for my sake, a wretched sinner, but for the sake of the tears of a mother grieving for her son and firmly believing in Thy mercy and omnipotence, Christ our God, resurrect, O Lord, her son...” – and the Lord resurrected him.
Thus, Your Godliness, the power of prayer is great, and it brings forth the Spirit of God more than anything else, and it is most easily practiced by everyone. Blessed will we be when the Lord God finds us vigilant, in the fullness of the gifts of His Holy Spirit! Then we can boldly hope to be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, Who comes with glory and great power to judge the living and the dead and reward each according to their deeds.
So, Your Divine Love, you consider it a great blessing to converse with the humble Seraphim, confident that he, too, is not deprived of the Lord's grace. What can we say of the Lord Himself, the ever-inexhaustible Source of every blessing, both heavenly and earthly? Indeed, through prayer we are deemed worthy to converse with Him, the All-Good and Life-Giving God and our Savior. But even here we must pray only until God the Holy Spirit descends upon us in the known measure of His heavenly grace. And when He deigns to visit us, then we must cease praying. Why then pray to Him: "Come and dwell in us, and cleanse us from every impurity, and save our souls, O Good One," when He has already come to us to save us who trust in Him and call upon His holy name in truth—that is, so that we may humbly and lovingly greet Him, the Comforter, within the chambers of our souls, hungering and thirsting for His coming. I will explain this to your love for God with an example: suppose you invited me to visit you, and I would come at your call and wish to converse with you. But you still proceed to invite me: "You are welcome, please come to me!" Then I would involuntarily have to say: "What is this he is doing? Has he lost his mind? I have come to him, and he still calls me!"—That is how it is with the Lord God the Holy Spirit. That is why it is said: “Be still and understand that I am God , I will be exalted among the nations , I will be exalted on the earth ,” that is, I will appear and will appear to everyone who believes in Me and calls upon Me, and I will converse with him, as I once conversed with Adam in paradise, with Abraham and Jacob and with other servants of Mine, with Moses, Job and those like them.
Many interpret this abolition as referring only to worldly affairs, that is, that during prayerful conversation with God one must abstain from worldly affairs. But I tell you, following God, that although it is necessary to abstain from them during prayer, when, through the almighty power of faith and prayer, the Lord God the Holy Spirit deigns to visit us and comes to us in the fullness of His ineffable goodness, then one must also abstain from prayer. The soul speaks and is in speech when it prays; but during the descent of the Holy Spirit, one must be in complete silence, hearing clearly and intelligibly all the words of eternal life that He then deigns to proclaim. One must be in complete sobriety of soul and spirit, and in chaste purity of the flesh. This is what happened at Mount Horeb, when the Israelites were told that they should not touch their wives for three days before God appeared on Sinai, for our God is “a fire that consumes all impurity ,” and no one can enter into communion with Him who is defiled in flesh and spirit.
"But what about other virtues, Father, performed for the sake of Christ, to acquire the grace of the Holy Spirit? After all, you're only telling me about prayer?"
Acquire the grace of the Holy Spirit and all other virtues for Christ's sake; trade them spiritually, trade those that yield you the greatest profit. Accumulate a capital of blessed excesses of God's grace, place them in God's eternal pawnshop of immaterial interest, and not four or six for a hundred, but a hundred for one spiritual ruble, and even countless times more. For example: prayer and vigilance give you more of God's grace; vigil and pray; fasting gives much of the Spirit of God; fast; almsgiving gives more; give alms; and thus reflect on every virtue done for Christ's sake.
Let me tell you about myself, poor Seraphim. I come from a family of Kursk merchants. Before I joined the monastery, we would trade in goods that brought us the most profit. So do you, Father, and just as in business, strength lies not in trading more, but in earning more, so in the Christian life: strength lies not in merely praying or doing any other good deed. Although the Apostle says, "Pray without ceasing" ( 1 Thessalonians 5:17 ), yet, as you remember, he also adds, "...but in church I would rather speak five words with my understanding, that I may instruct others also, than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue" ( 1 Corinthians 14:19 ). And the Lord says: "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven" ( Matthew 7:21 ), that is, he who does the work of God and does it with reverence, for "cursed is he who does the work of the Lord carelessly" ( Jeremiah 48:10 ). And the work of God is: "That you believe in God and in Jesus Christ, whom He has sent" ( John 17:3 ). If we judge correctly the commandments of Christ and the apostles, then our Christian work consists not in increasing the number of good deeds that serve only as means to the goal of our Christian life, but in extracting greater benefit from them, that is, for the greater acquisition of the more abundant gifts of the Holy Spirit.
Thus, I would desire, Your Godliness, that you too would acquire this ever-inexhaustible source of God's grace and always consider: are you in the Spirit of God or not? And if you are in the Spirit, then, blessed be God ! there is nothing to talk about: even now we will face the terrible judgment of Christ. For as He finds us, so He will judge us. If not, then we must examine why and for what reason the Lord God the Holy Spirit deigned to forsake us, and again seek and search for Him, and not give up until the sought-after Lord God the Holy Spirit is found and is again with us through His grace. We must attack our enemies who drive us away from Him until even their dust is scattered: ...and I consume them and smite them, and they rise not, but fall under my feet ( 2 Samuel 22:39 ).
So, father. So, please, trade in spiritual virtue. Distribute the gifts of the grace of the Holy Spirit to those who demand them, like a lit candle, which itself shines, burning with earthly fire, and, without diminishing its own flame, lights other candles for the illumination of all in other places. And if this is so with regard to earthly fire, then what shall we say of the fire of the grace of the All-Holy Spirit of God? For, for example, earthly wealth, when distributed, diminishes, but the heavenly wealth of God's grace, the more it is distributed, the more it increases for the one who distributes it. Thus the Lord Himself deigned to say to the Samaritan woman: " Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst." but the water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water springing up into eternal life ( John 4:13–14 ).
"Father," I said, "you always talk about acquiring the grace of the Holy Spirit as the goal of the Christian life; but how and where can I see it? Good deeds are visible, but can the Holy Spirit be seen? How will I know whether He is with me or not?"
"We at the present time," the elder responded, "due to our almost universal coldness toward the holy faith in our Lord Jesus Christ and our inattention to the actions of His Divine Providence for us and to man's communion with God, have reached such a point that, one might say, we have almost completely withdrawn from the true Christian life. The words of Holy Scripture now seem strange to us when the Spirit of God, through the mouth of Moses, speaks of Adam seeing the Lord walking in Paradise, or when we read in the Apostle Paul: ' Now when these things were accomplished, Paul purposed in the spirit, when he had passed through Macedonia and Achaia, to go to Jerusalem, saying, 'After I have been there, I must also see Rome'" ( Acts 19:21 ). Other passages of Holy Scripture also repeatedly speak of God's appearance to men.
It is precisely in this way that Abraham and Jacob are said to have seen the Lord and conversed with Him, and Jacob even wrestled with Him. Moses saw God and all the people with him when he was deemed worthy to receive the tablets of the law from God on Mount Sinai. The pillar of cloud and fire, or, what amounts to the same thing, the manifest grace of the Holy Spirit, served as guides to God's people in the wilderness. People saw God and the grace of His Holy Spirit not in dreams, not in fantasies, not in the frenzy of a disordered imagination, but in true reality. We have become greatly inattentive to the work of our salvation, which is why we misinterpret many other words of Holy Scripture. And all because we do not seek the grace of God, we do not allow it, due to the pride of our minds, to enter into our souls, and therefore we do not have true enlightenment from the Lord, sent into the hearts of people who hunger and thirst with all their hearts for the truth of God.
Many interpret the Bible as saying, " And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul" ( Gen. 2:7 ), to mean that Adam did not previously possess a human soul or spirit, but was merely flesh, formed from the dust of the ground. This interpretation is incorrect, for the Lord God created Adam from the dust of the ground in the same composition as the holy Apostle Paul affirms, " May the God of peace himself sanctify you wholly; and may your spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ" ( 1 Thessalonians 5:23 ). All three of these parts of our nature were created from the dust of the ground, and Adam was not created dead, but an active, living being, like other animate creatures of God living on earth. But here is the power, that if the Lord God had not then breathed into his face this breath of life, that is, the grace of the Lord God the Holy Spirit, proceeding from the Father and resting in the Son, and sent into the world for the sake of the Son, then Adam, no matter how he was created completely excellently above the rest of God's creatures, as the crown of creation on earth, would still have remained without the Holy Spirit within himself, raising him to God-like dignity, and would have been like all other creatures, although having flesh, and soul, and spirit, and belonging to each according to their kind, but not having the Holy Spirit within himself. When the Lord God breathed into Adam's nostrils the breath of life, then, in the words of Moses, the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul ( Gen. 2:7 ), that is, perfectly like God in all things, and like Him, immortal forevermore. Adam was created so immune to the influence of any of the elements created by God that neither water could drown him, nor fire could burn him, nor could the earth devour him in its depths, nor could the air harm him in any way. All was subject to him, as God's favorite, as king and possessor of creation. And all looked upon him as the all-perfect crown of God's creation. From this breath of life, breathed into Adam's face from the all-creating lips of the all-creating and all-ruling God, Adam became so wise that never before in the ages has there been, nor is it likely that there ever will be on earth, a man wiser and more wise than he. When the Lord commanded him to name every creature, He gave each creature a name in the language that fully signifies all the qualities, all the power, and all the properties of the creature that it possesses by the gift of God bestowed upon it at its creation.
It was by this gift of divine grace, bestowed upon him by the breath of life, that Adam could see and understand the Lord walking in Paradise, and comprehend His words, and the conversation of the holy Angels, and the language of all the beasts, birds, and creeping things that dwell on the earth, and all that is now hidden from us, as fallen and sinful, but which was so clear to Adam before his fall. The Lord God bestowed the same wisdom, strength, omnipotence, and all the other good and holy qualities upon Eve, creating her not from the dust of the earth, but from Adam's rib in the sweet Eden, the paradise He planted in the midst of the earth.
In order to conveniently and continually maintain within themselves the immortal, God-blessed, and all-perfect properties of this breath of life, God planted the tree of life in the midst of paradise, in whose fruit He contained the entire essence and fullness of the gifts of this Divine breath of His. Had Adam and Eve not sinned, then they themselves and all their descendants would have been able, by partaking of the fruit of the tree of life, to forever maintain within themselves the eternally life-giving power of God's grace and the immortal, eternally youthful fullness of the powers of flesh, soul, and spirit, and the unceasing agelessness of their infinitely immortal, all-blessed state, a state that is currently incomprehensible even to our imagination.
When, by eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, prematurely and contrary to the commandment of God, they learned the difference between good and evil and were subjected to all the calamities that followed the transgression of the commandment of God, they were deprived of this priceless gift of the grace of the Spirit of God, so that until the very coming into the world of the God-man Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit was not upon them, because Jesus was not yet glorified ( John 7:39 ).
This does not mean, however, that the Spirit of God was entirely absent from the world. His presence, however, was not as full-fledged as in Adam or in us Orthodox Christians. Rather, it manifested only from without, and the signs of His presence in the world were known to mankind. Thus, for example, after the fall, Adam , and Eve along with him, were revealed many mysteries pertaining to the future salvation of mankind. And Cain, despite his wickedness and his transgression, easily understood the voice of God's gracious, albeit accusatory, conversation with him. Noah conversed with God. Abraham saw God and His day and rejoiced. The grace of the Holy Spirit, acting from without, was reflected in all the Old Testament prophets and the saints of Israel. The Jews later established special prophetic schools, where they were taught to recognize the signs of divine or angelic manifestations and to distinguish the actions of the Holy Spirit from the ordinary phenomena that occur in the natural world of an ungracious earthly life. Simeon the God-Receiver, the Ancestors of God Joachim and Anna, and countless other servants of God experienced constant, varied, and visible divine manifestations, voices, and revelations, justified by obvious miraculous events. Not with the same power as among God's people, but the manifestation of the Spirit of God also worked among pagans who did not know the True God, for even from among them God found His chosen people. Such, for example, were the virgin prophetesses, the Sibyls, who condemned themselves to virginity, though for the Unknown God, yet for God, the Creator of the universe and the Almighty and Ruler of the world, as even the pagans recognized Him. Likewise, the pagan philosophers, although they wandered in the darkness of ignorance of the Divine, yet, in seeking the truth beloved of God, could, through this very God-loving search, be partakers of the Spirit of God, for it is said: " For when the Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do the things of the law, these, not having the law, are a law to themselves" ( Rom. 2:14 ). And the Lord so blesses truth that He Himself proclaims it through the Holy Spirit: " Truth shall spring forth out of the earth, and righteousness shall look down from heaven" ( Ps. 84:12 ).
So, Your Godliness, both in the Jewish people, a sacred people dear to God, and in the pagans who knew nothing of God, the knowledge of God was nevertheless preserved—that is, Father, a clear and rational understanding of how the Lord God the Holy Spirit works in man, and how, and by what external and internal sensations, one can be certain that it is the Lord God the Holy Spirit at work, and not the delusion of the enemy. Thus it all was, from the fall of Adam to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ into the world in the flesh.
Without this, your Godliness, the perceptible understanding of the actions of the Holy Spirit, which has always been preserved in the human race, people would not have had the opportunity to know for sure whether the fruit of the woman’s seed, promised to Adam and Eve, had come into the world, which would crush the head of the serpent.
But Simeon the God-Receiver, preserved by the Holy Spirit after the revelation to him in the 65th year of his life of the mystery of His ever-virgin conception and birth from the Most Pure Ever-Virgin Mary, having lived by the grace of the All-Holy Spirit of God for 300 years, then, in the 365th year of his life, said clearly in the temple of the Lord that he tangibly recognized by the gift of the Holy Spirit that this was He Himself, the Christ, the Savior of the world, about Whose supernatural conception and birth from the Holy Spirit was revealed to him by an Angel.
Here is Saint Anna the prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel, who served the Lord God in the temple of God for eighty years from her widowhood and was known for the special gifts of God's grace for being a righteous widow, a pure servant of God, announced that this is indeed He who is the Messiah promised to the world, the true Christ, God and man, the King of Israel, who came to save Adam and the human race.
When He, our Lord Jesus Christ, had deigned to accomplish the whole work of salvation, after His Resurrection He breathed upon the apostles, renewing the breath of life lost by Adam , and granted them the grace of the All-Holy Spirit of God. But this is not enough—He also said to them: It is expedient for you that I go away (to the Father—Ed.); for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you ( John 16:7 ). But when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth ( John 16:13 ). When the Helper, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, is come, He will testify of Me ( John 15:26 ). This grace-grace (grace upon grace) had already been promised to them ( John 1:16 ).
And so, on the day of Pentecost, He solemnly sent down the Holy Spirit upon them in a tempestuous breath, in the form of fiery tongues that settled upon each of them and entered them, filling them with the power of fiery Divine grace, breathing dew-like and joyfully acting in the souls that partake of its power and actions. And this very same fire-inspired grace of the Holy Spirit, when bestowed upon us, all Christ's faithful, in the sacrament of Holy Baptism, is sacredly sealed by chrismation in the most important places of our flesh, designated by the Holy Church as the eternal custodian of this grace. It is said: "The seal of the Gift of the Holy Spirit . "
And on what, Father, Your Godliness, do we poor creatures place our seals, if not on vessels that hold some treasure we hold dear? What could be higher than anything else in the world, what could be more precious than the gifts of the Holy Spirit, bestowed upon us from above in the Sacrament of Baptism? For this baptismal grace is so great and so necessary, so life-giving for man, that it is not taken away even from a heretic until his death—that is, until the time appointed from above by God's Providence for a lifelong test of man on earth: what he will be good for and what he can accomplish in this God-given time, through the power of grace bestowed upon him from above. And if we had never sinned after our baptism, we would forever remain holy, blameless, and freed from all defilement of flesh and spirit, saints of God. But herein lies the trouble: while we advance in stature, we do not advance in grace and the knowledge of God, as did our Lord Christ Jesus. On the contrary, gradually becoming corrupted, we lose the grace of the All-Holy Spirit of God and become sinful in various ways. But when someone, inspired by the wisdom of God, which seeks our salvation and encompasses all things, resolves for its sake to strive for the morning before God and to remain vigilant for the sake of attaining eternal salvation, then, obedient to its voice, they must resort to true repentance for all their sins and the creation of virtues that oppose the sins they have committed, and through virtues for Christ's sake, to the acquisition of the Holy Spirit, Who acts within us and establishes within us the Kingdom of God. Not without reason does the Word of God say: "The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force" ( Matthew 11:12 ). That is, those people who, despite the bonds of sin that bind them and who, through their violence and incitement to new sins, do not allow themselves to come to Him, our Savior, with perfect repentance to be tormented with Him, despising the strength of these sinful bonds, strive to break their bonds, such people then truly appear before the face of God, whiter than snow by His grace. "Come ," says the Lord, " though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow" ( Isaiah 1:18 ).
Thus once the holy seer John the Theologian saw such people in white robes, that is, robes of justification, and "dates in their hands ," as a sign of victory, and they sang to God the wondrous song "Hallelujah ." No one could imitate the beauty of their singing. Of them, the Angel of God said: "These are they who came out of great tribulation; “They washed their robes and made them white in the Blood of the Lamb” ( Rev. 7:14 ), washed them with sufferings and made them white in the communion of the Most Pure and Life-giving Mysteries of the Flesh and Blood of the Lamb, Immaculate and Most Pure Christ, slain before all ages by His own will for the salvation of the world, ever and until now slaughtered and broken, but never wasted, giving us for eternal and inexhaustible salvation our way to eternal life, in return acceptable at His Dread Judgment and a most precious replacement and surpassing all understanding of that fruit of the tree of life, which the enemy of men, Dennitsa, who fell from heaven, wanted to deprive our human race.
Although the enemy devil deceived Eve, and Adam fell with her, the Lord not only granted them a Redeemer in the fruit of the seed of the Woman, who trampled death by death , but also gave us all in the Woman, the Ever-Virgin Mother of God Mary, who erased in herself and erases in all mankind the head of the serpent, an unwavering Intercessor before her Son and our God, an unashamed and invincible Intercessor for even the most desperate sinners. Therefore, the Mother of God herself is called the "Plague of Demons," for the demon cannot destroy a person unless that person himself refuses to turn to the help of the Mother of God.
Furthermore, Your Godliness, I, humble Seraphim, must explain the difference between the actions of the Holy Spirit, who sacramentally indwells the hearts of those who believe in the Lord God and our Savior Jesus Christ, and the actions of sinful darkness, which, at the instigation and instigation of demons, stealthily works within us. The Spirit of God reminds us of the words of our Lord Jesus Christ and acts in unison with Him, always solemnly, rejoicing our hearts and guiding our steps onto the path of peace. But the deceitful, demonic spirit philosophizes contrary to Christ, and its actions within us are rebellious, stubborn, and filled with carnal lust, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. And whoever lives and believes in Me will never die ( John 11:26 ) – he who has the grace of the Holy Spirit for his true faith in Christ, even if through human weakness he were to die spiritually from some sin, will never die, but will be resurrected by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who takes away the sins of the world and freely bestows grace upon grace. It is about this grace, revealed to the whole world and to our human race in the God-Man, that it is said in the Gospel: “In Him was life, and the life was the light of men,” and it is added: “And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not” ( John 1:4–5 ). This means that the grace of the Holy Spirit, bestowed at baptism in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, despite human falls into sin, despite the darkness surrounding our souls, still shines in the heart with the divine light of Christ's priceless merits, which has existed since time immemorial. This light of Christ, when a sinner is unrepentant, cries to the Father: "Abba, Father! Do not be entirely angry with this impenitence!" And then, upon the sinner's conversion to the path of repentance, it completely erases the traces of the crimes committed, clothing the former criminal anew with the garment of incorruptibility, woven from the grace of the Holy Spirit, the acquisition of which, as the goal of the Christian life, I have spoken of so long to your God-loving Father.
I will tell you more so that you may understand even more clearly what is meant by the grace of God and how to recognize it, and how its action is especially manifested in those enlightened by it. The grace of the Holy Spirit is the light that enlightens man. All of Holy Scripture speaks of this . Thus, David, the Ancestor of God, said: "Thy word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path." And: "If Thy law had not been my delight, I should have perished in my affliction" ( Psalm 119:105, 92 ). That is, the grace of the Holy Spirit, expressed in the Law by the words of the Lord's commandments, is my lamp and light, and if this grace of the Holy Spirit, which I so carefully and diligently acquire that seven times a day I study the judgments of Your truth, did not enlighten me in the darkness of the cares associated with the great calling of my royal rank, then where would I get even a spark of light to illuminate my path along the road of life, darkened by the ill will of my enemies.
Indeed, the Lord repeatedly demonstrated to many witnesses the action of the grace of the Holy Spirit on those whom He sanctified and enlightened with His mighty inspirations. Remember Moses after his conversation with God on Mount Sinai. People could not look at him—he was so radiant with the extraordinary light that surrounded his face. He was even forced to appear to the people only under a veil. Remember the Transfiguration of the Lord on Mount Tabor. A great light comprehended Him, and His appearance was like lightning, and His garments were white as snow ( Matthew 28:3 ). When Moses and Elijah appeared to Him in the same light, to hide the radiance of Divine grace, which blinded the disciples' eyes, a bright cloud, it is said, overshadowed them ( Matthew 17:5 ). And in this way the grace of the All-Holy Spirit of God appears in an ineffable light to all to whom God reveals its action.
“How then,” I asked Father Seraphim, “can I know that I am in the grace of the Holy Spirit?”
“This, Your Divine Love, is very simple,” he answered me, “that is why the Lord says: ‘All things are simple to those who gain understanding…’” But our whole trouble is that we ourselves do not seek this Divine understanding, which does not boast (does not become puffed up), for it is not of this world. This understanding, filled with love for God and neighbor, builds up every person for his salvation. Concerning this understanding, the Apostle said that God desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth ( 1 Tim. 2:4 ). And concerning the lack of this understanding, the Lord said to His Apostles: “And He saith unto them, Understand ye not this parable? How then shall ye understand all the parables?” ( Mark 4:13 ). Again, concerning this understanding, the Gospel speaks of the Apostles, that “the Lord opened their understanding to the understanding of the Scriptures . ” With this mindset, the apostles always discerned whether the Spirit of God dwelt within them or not. Permeated by it, and seeing the Spirit of God's presence with them, they affirmatively declared that their work was holy and entirely pleasing to the Lord God. This explains why they wrote in their epistles, " It is pleasing to the Holy Spirit and to us" ( Acts 15:28 ), and on this basis alone they offered their epistles as immutable truth, for the benefit of all the faithful—thus the holy apostles were tangibly aware of the presence of the Spirit of God within themselves... So, your Godliness, do you see how simple it is?
I answered:
"I still don't understand how I can be so sure that I am in the Spirit of God. How can I recognize His true manifestation in myself?"
Father Seraphim answered:
“I have already, your Godliness, told you in detail how people are in the Spirit of God and how we should understand His manifestation in us... What do you need, father?”
“It is necessary,” I said, “that I understand this well.”
Then Father Seraphim took me very firmly by the shoulders and said to me:
- We are both now, father, in the Spirit of God with you. Why don’t you look at me?
I answered:
"I can't look, Father, because lightning is pouring from your eyes. Your face has become brighter than the sun, and my eyes ache with pain."
Father Seraphim said:
"Don't be afraid, Your Divine Love! You yourself have now become as bright as I am. You yourself are now in the fullness of the Spirit of God, otherwise you would not be able to see me as such."
And bending his head towards me, he quietly said in my ear:
"Thank the Lord God for His ineffable mercy to you. You saw that I didn't even cross myself, but only said in my heart, mentally to the Lord God and within myself: 'Lord, grant him the honor of clearly and with his bodily eyes to behold that descent of Your Spirit with which You honor Your servants when You deign to appear in the light of Your magnificent glory!' And so, Father, the Lord instantly fulfilled the humble request of the humble Seraphim... How can we not thank Him for this ineffable gift to both of us? Father, the Lord does not always show His mercy even to the great hermits. It was the grace of God that deigned to console your contrite heart, like a loving mother, through the intercession of the Mother of God Herself... So, Father, don't you look me in the eye? Simply look, do not be afraid—the Lord is with us!"
After these words, I looked into his face, and an even greater awe fell upon me. Imagine, in the midst of the sun, in the most brilliant brightness of its midday rays, the face of a man speaking to you. You see the movement of his lips, the changing expression of his eyes, you hear his voice, you feel someone's hands grasping your shoulders, but not only do you not see these hands, you see neither yourself nor his figure, only a blinding light, extending far, for several yards around, and illuminating with its brilliant brilliance both the shroud of snow covering the clearing and the snow pellets raining down on both me and the great elder. Is it possible to imagine the situation I found myself in then?
"What do you feel now?" Father Seraphim asked me.
“Unusually good!” I said.
- How good is it? What exactly?
I answered:
– I feel such silence and peace in my soul that I cannot express it in words!
“This, your Godliness,” said Father Seraphim, “is that peace of which the Lord said to His disciples: ‘My peace I give to you; not as the world gives, give I to you... If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, because the world hates you’” ( John 15:19 ; John 14:27 ). It is to these people, hated by this world, but chosen by the Lord, that the Lord gives that peace which you now feel within yourselves; “peace ,” in the words of the Apostle, “passes all understanding .” The Apostle calls it this way, because no word can express the spiritual well-being that it produces in those people into whose hearts the Lord God implants it . Christ the Savior calls it peace from His own bounty, and not from this world, for no temporary earthly well-being can give it to the human heart: it is given from above by the Lord God Himself, and therefore it is called the peace of God...
"What else do you feel?" Father Seraphim asked me.
“Unbelievably sweet!” I said.
And he continued:
"This is the sweetness spoken of in Holy Scripture : 'Of the fatness of Thy house, and of the river of Thy delights Thou wilt make them drink'" ( Psalm 36:9 ). It is this sweetness that now fills our hearts and spreads through all our veins with indescribable delight. From this sweetness our hearts seem to melt, and we are both filled with such bliss that no language can express... What else do you feel?
- An extraordinary joy in my whole heart!
And Father Seraphim continued:
When the Spirit of God descends upon a person and overshadows him with the fullness of His inspiration, then the human soul is filled with inexpressible joy, for the Spirit of God brings joy to everything He touches. This is the very joy of which the Lord speaks in His Gospel: “When a woman is in labor, she has sorrow, because her hour has come; but as soon as she has given birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a child has been born into the world. So you also have sorrow now; but I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you” ( John 16:21–22, 33 ). But however comforting this joy you now feel in your heart, it is still nothing in comparison to that of which the Lord Himself, through the lips of His apostle, said, "What eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God has prepared for those who love Him" ( 1 Cor. 2:9 ). The glimmerings of this joy are now given to us, and if they bring such sweetness, goodness, and joy to our souls, then what can we say of the joy that is prepared there in heaven for those who weep here on earth? You, Father, have wept enough in your life on earth, and look with what joy the Lord comforts you even in this life. Now it is up to us, father, to add labor to labor, to ascend from strength to strength and reach the measure of the maturity of Christ, so that the words of the Lord may be fulfilled in us: "But those who endure the Lord, they will change their strength, they will fly like eagles, they will run and not be weary, they will walk and not hunger, they will go from strength to strength, and the God of gods will appear to them in Zion of understanding and heavenly visions..." Then our present joy, which appears to us in small and brief glimpses, will appear in all its fullness, and no one will take it from us, filled with inexpressible heavenly delights... What else do you feel, your Godliness?
I answered:
- Extraordinary warmth!
"What, Father, warmth? But we're sitting in the forest. It's winter now, and there's snow underfoot, and there's more than an inch of snow on us, and sleet is falling from above... How can there be warmth here?"
I answered:
- And the kind that happens in the bathhouse, when they turn on the stove and a column of steam comes out of it...
“And the smell,” he asked me, “is the same as from the bathhouse?”
“No,” I answered, “there is nothing on earth like this fragrance... When, during my mother’s lifetime, I loved to dance and go to balls and dance parties, my mother would sprinkle me with perfume that she bought in the best shops in Kazan, but even that perfume did not emit such a fragrance...”
And Father Seraphim, smiling pleasantly, said:
"And I myself, Father, know this just as well as you, but I am specifically asking you—is this how you feel it? It is absolutely true, Your Godliness! No pleasant earthly fragrance can compare with the fragrance we now sense, because we are now surrounded by the fragrance of the Holy Spirit of God. What earthly thing can be like it!.. Notice, Your Godliness, you told me that it is warm around us, like in a bathhouse, but look: the snow does not melt on you or me, and neither does it melt beneath us. Therefore, this warmth is not in the air, but within us ourselves. It is precisely this very warmth about which the Holy Spirit makes us cry out to the Lord in words of prayer: "Warm me with the warmth of the Holy Spirit . " Warmed by it, the hermits, both male and female, did not fear the winter frost, being clothed, as in warm coats, in the grace-filled garment woven by the Holy Spirit. This is indeed how it should be, for the grace of God must dwell within us, in our hearts, for the Lord said, "The kingdom of God is within you" ( Luke 17:21 ). By the Kingdom of God, the Lord meant the grace of the Holy Spirit. This Kingdom of God is now within us, and the grace of the Holy Spirit radiates from without, warming us, and, filling the air around us with a myriad of fragrances, delights our senses with heavenly delight, filling our hearts with inexpressible joy. Our present situation is the very one about which the apostle spoke: "The kingdom of God is not food and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit" ( Rom. 14:17 ). Our faith does not consist in the persuasive words of human wisdom, but in the demonstration of the Spirit and power ( 1 Cor. 2:4 ). It was in this state that the Lord said: " Truly I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God come with power" ( Mark 9:1 ). Behold, Father, your Godliness, what an inexpressible joy the Lord God has now granted us ! This is what it means to be in the fullness of the Holy Spirit, of which Saint Macarius of Egypt writes: "I myself was in the fullness of the Holy Spirit..." It is with this fullness of His Holy Spirit that the Lord has now filled us, the wretched,... Well, now, it seems, there is no longer any need to ask, Your Godliness, how people are in the grace of the Holy Spirit! Will you remember this present manifestation of God's ineffable mercy that has visited us?
“I don’t know, Father,” I said, “whether the Lord will grant me the honor of remembering forever this mercy of God as vividly and clearly as I now feel.”
"But I believe," Father Seraphim answered me, "that the Lord will help you retain this forever in your memory, for otherwise His grace would not have so instantly inclined to my humble prayer and would not have so quickly preceded me to listen to the poor Seraphim, especially since it is not for you alone that this understanding is given, but through you for the whole world, so that you yourselves, having become established in God's work, might be useful to others. As for the fact, Father, that I am a monk and you a layman, there is no need to think about it: true faith in Him and His Only-Begotten Son is sought from God. For this, the grace of the Holy Spirit is bestowed abundantly from above. The Lord seeks a heart overflowing with love for God and neighbor—this is the throne on which He loves to sit and on which He appears in the fullness of His heavenly glory. 'Son, give Me your heart! ' He says. “ And everything else I will add to you,” for the kingdom of God can be contained in the human heart. The Lord commands His disciples: “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and... it shall be added to you. [...] For your heavenly Father knoweth that ye need all these things” ( Matthew 6:32–33 ; Luke 12:30–31 ). The Lord God doth not reproach us for the use of earthly goods, for He Himself sayeth that, according to our state in earthly life, we require all these things, that is, everything that bringeth peace to our human life on earth, and maketh our path to the heavenly homeland convenient and easier. Relying upon this, the holy Apostle Paul said that, in his opinion, there is nothing better in the world than piety united with contentment. And the Holy Church prayeth that this be granted us by the Lord God; And although sorrows, misfortunes, and various needs are inseparable from our life on earth, the Lord God did not and does not want us to be alone in sorrows and adversity, which is why He commands us through the apostles to bear one another's burdens and thereby fulfill the law of Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ personally gives us the commandment to love one another and, comforted by this mutual love, to ease the sorrowful and difficult path of our journey to the heavenly homeland. Why, then, did He descend from heaven to us, if not to take upon Himself our poverty and enrich us with the wealth of His goodness and His ineffable mercies? After all, He did not come to be served, but to serve others and to give His life for the deliverance of many. So do you, your God-loving Father, and, having seen God's mercy clearly shown to you, communicate it to everyone who desires salvation. “The harvest is plentiful ,” says the Lord, “but the laborers are few” ( Luke 10:2). The Lord God has brought us out to work and given us the gifts of His grace, so that, reaping the ears of salvation for our neighbors through the great number we have brought into the Kingdom of God, we might bring Him fruit—some thirty, some sixty, some a hundred. Let us be careful, father, lest we be condemned with that wicked and lazy servant who buried his talent in the ground, but let us strive to imitate those good and faithful servants of the Lord who brought to their Master: one—four instead of two, and another—ten instead of five. There is no doubt about the mercy of the Lord God. You yourself, your Godliness, see how the words of the Lord, spoken through the prophet, have come true for us: “Am I a God only at hand, says the Lord, and not a God afar off?” ( Jer. 23:23 ). I, a wretched one, had hardly time to cross myself, and had only just wished in my heart that the Lord would grant you the sight of His grace in all its fullness, when He immediately and practically hastened to fulfill my wish. I say this not in boastfulness, nor to show you my importance or make you envious, nor to make you think that I am a monk and you a layman—no, Your Godliness, no! "The Lord is near to all who call upon Him in truth, and He is no respecter of persons, for the Father loves the Son and gives all things into His hands ." If only we ourselves would love Him, our Heavenly Father, truly, as sons. The Lord listens equally to both the monk and the layman, the simple Christian, provided both are Orthodox and both love God from the depths of their souls, and both have faith in Him, even if only "as a grain of mustard seed ," and both will move mountains. “One can move thousands, but two can move ten thousand .” The Lord Himself says: “All things are possible to him who believes” ( Mark 9:23 ), and Father Saint Paul exclaims: “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” ( Philippians 4:13 ). Is it not even more wondrous when our Lord Jesus Christ speaks of those who believe in Him: “He who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father. [...] And I will ask the Father... and your joy will be full. Until now you have asked nothing in My name; ask, and you will receive... ( John 14:12, 16 ; John 15:11 ; John 16:24 ).
Thus, your Godliness, whatever you ask of the Lord God, you will receive it, provided it is for the glory of God or for the benefit of your neighbor, for He also attributes the benefit of your neighbor to His own glory, which is why He says: "Inasmuch as you did it for one of the least of these My brothers, you did it for Me" ( Matthew 25:40 ). So have no doubt that the Lord God will not fulfill your requests, provided they are for the glory of God or for the benefit and edification of your neighbors. But even if you need something for your own need, or benefit, or advantage, the Lord God will deign to send you all this just as quickly and obediently, provided the extreme need and necessity arises, for the Lord loves those who love Him; The Lord is good to all, compassionate and giving to those who do not call upon His name. His mercies are in all His works. He will fulfill the will of those who fear Him, hear their prayers, and fulfill all their counsel. The Lord will fulfill all your requests. Beware of one thing, your Godliness: lest you ask the Lord for anything you do not absolutely need. The Lord will not refuse you this for your Orthodox faith in Christ the Savior. For the Lord will not deliver the rod of the righteous, and He will unfailingly fulfill the will of His servant David. However, He will hold him accountable for disturbing Him without great need, asking Him for something he could easily do without.
So, Your Godliness, I have now told you everything and demonstrated in practice what the Lord and the Mother of God, through me, humble Seraphim, have deigned to tell and show you. Go in peace. May the Lord and the Mother of God be with you always, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen. Go in peace!
And throughout this entire conversation, from the moment Father Seraphim's face lit up, this vision continued unabated, and he told me everything from the beginning of the story to what had been said so far, remaining in the same position. I myself, with my own eyes, saw the indescribable radiance of light emanating from him, a fact I am prepared to confirm with an oath.
* * *
At this point, Motovilov's manuscript ends. It is not for me to elucidate and emphasize the profound significance of this act of triumph of Orthodoxy, and it requires no testimony, for it bears witness to itself with such unshakable force that its significance cannot be diminished by the idle talk of this world.
But if only anyone could have seen the state in which Motovilov's papers, the precious testimony of the holy elder's pious life that had been preserved in their hiding places, came to me! Dust, jackdaw and pigeon feathers, bird droppings, scraps of completely uninteresting accounts, accounting and agricultural statements, copies of petitions, letters from strangers—all in one heap, jumbled together, weighing 4 poods (25 pounds) in total. All the papers were tattered, covered in a hasty and so illegible handwriting that I was simply horrified: how could I make sense of them all?!
Sorting through this chaos, encountering all sorts of obstacles—the handwriting was a particular stumbling block for me—I remember nearly giving in to despair. And then, amidst all this jumbled paper, every now and then a barely decipherable phrase would glimmer in the darkness: "Father Seraphim told me..." What did he say? What do these unsolved hieroglyphs conceal? I despaired.
I remember, towards evening, after a day of stubborn and fruitless labor, I could bear it no longer and begged: "Father Seraphim! Is it really so you gave me the opportunity to obtain the manuscripts of your 'servant' from such a distance as Diveyevo, so that I could return them unsorted to oblivion?"
My exclamation must have been heartfelt. The next morning, as I began sorting through my papers, I immediately found this manuscript, and immediately acquired the ability to decipher Motovilov's handwriting. It's not hard to imagine my joy, and how significant the words in this manuscript seemed to me: "And I believe," Father Seraphim answered, "that the Lord will help you retain this forever in your memory, for otherwise His goodness would not have so instantly bowed to my humble prayer and would not have so quickly anticipated my listening to the wretched Seraphim, especially since 'and not for you alone has it been given to you to understand this, but through you—for the whole world...'"
For seventy long years, this treasure lay hidden in attics, among various forgotten junk. It had to be published, and when, of all times, just before the glorification of the holy relics of the one to whom the Orthodox Church begins to pray: "Reverend Father Seraphim, pray to God for us!"
May 19, 1903
Spiritual instructions for laypeople and monks
The "Spiritual Instructions" of St. Seraphim were collected, recorded, and first published by Father Sergius, a monk of the Sarov Hermitage, who later became a hieromonk of the Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius and archimandrite of the Vysotsky-Serpukhov Monastery. This same author also wrote the first biography of Father Seraphim, compiled in 1837.
Saint Philaret, Metropolitan of Moscow (canonized on December 4, 1994), who always deeply revered the great Sarov elder and ascetic, personally reviewed and corrected Father Sergius's works in order to eliminate possible obstacles to their publication.
On August 2, 1838, he wrote to his abbot, Archimandrite Anthony: "I am sending you, Father Abbot, the Teachings, or spiritual instructions, of Father Seraphim, which I have reviewed. I have taken the liberty of changing or adding to some expressions, partly to make the language more correct, partly to protect the thoughts, not sufficiently fully and not sufficiently commonly expressed, from misunderstanding or contradiction. Review and tell me whether it can be assumed that I have not distorted or damaged the elder's thoughts in any way."
In 1839, the "Spiritual Instructions" of St. Seraphim were published, but not together with the life of the holy elder, but in the book: "A Brief Outline of the Life of the Elder of the Sarov Desert, Schemamonk and Hermit Mark."
The life of St. Seraphim, compiled by Father Sergius, after much and lengthy effort by Metropolitan Philaret, was published only in 1841.
About God
God is a fire that warms and ignites hearts and innards. So, if we sense a chill in our hearts, which comes from the devil—for the devil is cold—let us call upon the Lord, and He, coming, will warm our hearts with perfect love not only for Himself, but also for our neighbor. And from the face of warmth will the chill of the hater of good be driven out.
The Fathers wrote when they were asked: seek the Lord, but do not test where he lives.
Where God is , there is no evil. Everything that comes from God is peaceful and beneficial, and leads a person to humility and self-condemnation.
God reveals His love for us not only when we do good, but also when we offend and anger Him. How patiently He bears our iniquities! And when He punishes, how graciously He punishes!
Do not call God just, says St. Isaac, for His justice is not visible in your deeds. Although David called Him just and right, His Son showed us that He is more kind and merciful. Where is His justice? We were sinners, and Christ died for us (Isaac the Syrian, Homily 90).
To the extent that a person perfects himself before God, to that extent do they follow Him; in the true age, God reveals His face to them. For the righteous, to the extent that they enter into contemplation of Him, behold His image as in a mirror, and there they behold the revelation of truth.
If you do not know God, it is impossible for love for Him to be awakened in you; and you cannot love God unless you see Him. The vision of God comes from knowing Him: for contemplation of Him does not precede knowledge of Him.
One should not judge the works of God after one's belly is full: for in a full belly there is no knowledge of the mysteries of God.
On the reasons for the coming of Jesus Christ into the world
The reasons for the coming of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, into the world are:
1. God's love for the human race: For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life ( John 3:16 ).
2. The restoration of the image and likeness of God in fallen man, as the Holy Church sings about (1st Canon of the Nativity of the Lord, Song 1): “Having been corrupted by transgression according to the image of God, being all corruption, having fallen away from the best of Divine life, the wise Creator renews again . ”
3. Salvation of human souls: For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved ( John 3:17 ).
So, we, following the purpose of our Redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ, must lead our lives according to His Divine teaching, so that through this we may receive salvation for our souls.
About faith
First of all, we must believe in God, that He exists and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him ( Heb. 11:6 ).
Faith, according to the teaching of St. Antiochus, is the beginning of our union with God: a true believer is a stone of the temple of God, prepared for the building of God the Father, raised to the heights by the power of Jesus Christ, i.e. the cross, with the help of the rope, i.e. the grace of the Holy Spirit.
Faith without works is dead ( James 2:26 ); but the works of faith are love, peace, patience, mercy, humility, bearing the cross, and life according to the Spirit. Only such faith is counted as righteousness. True faith cannot be without works: whoever truly believes certainly has works.
About hope
All who have firm hope in God are raised to Him and enlightened by the radiance of eternal light.
If a person has no care at all for himself out of love for God and works of virtue, knowing that God cares for him, such hope is true and wise. But if a person cares for his own affairs and turns to God in prayer only when inevitable misfortunes befall him, and he sees no means within his own strength to avert them and begins to rely on God's help, such hope is vain and false. True hope seeks the one Kingdom of God and is confident that all earthly things necessary for temporary life will undoubtedly be given. The heart cannot have peace until it acquires this hope. It will pacify it and infuse it with joy. Of this hope the venerable and most holy lips spoke: Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest ( Matthew 11:28 ), that is, Trust in Me, and you will be comforted from your labor and fear.
The Gospel of Luke says of Simeon: " It was revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death until he had seen the Lord's Christ" ( Luke 2:26 ). He did not give up hope, but awaited the longed-for Savior of the world, and joyfully receiving Him in his arms, he said: " Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace, according to Thy word, for my eyes have seen Thy salvation" ( Luke 2:29 ).
About love for God
He who has acquired perfect love for God exists in this life as if he did not exist. For he considers himself a stranger to the visible, patiently awaiting the invisible. He has been completely transformed by the love of God and has forgotten all other love.
He who loves himself cannot love God. And he who does not love himself for the sake of loving God loves God.
He who truly loves God considers himself a wanderer and a stranger on this earth: for with his soul and mind in his striving for God he contemplates Him alone.
The soul, filled with the love of God, at the time of its departure from the body, will not fear the prince of the air, but will fly with the Angels, as if from a foreign country to its homeland.
Against excessive care
Excessive concern for worldly things is characteristic of the unbelieving and fainthearted. Woe to us if, while we worry about ourselves, we do not strengthen our hope in God, who cares for us! If we do not attribute the visible blessings we enjoy in this world to Him, how can we expect from Him the blessings promised in the future? Let us not be so weak in faith, but rather let us seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you, according to the word of the Savior ( Matthew 6:33 ).
It is better for us to despise what is not ours, that is, the temporary and transitory, and to desire what is ours, that is, incorruptibility and immortality. For when we are incorruptible and immortal, then we will be deemed worthy of visible contemplation of God, like the apostles at the most divine Transfiguration, and we will partake of a union with God that is beyond the mind, like the heavenly minds. For we will be like the angels: and sons of God, sons of the resurrection ( Luke 20:36 ).
On the care of the soul
A person's body is like a lit candle. Just as a candle must burn out, so too must a person die. But the soul is immortal, and therefore our care should be more for the soul than for the body: For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? ( Mark 8:36–37 ), for which, as we know, nothing in the world can be a ransom? If one soul is in itself more precious than the entire world and the kingdom of this world, then the Kingdom of Heaven is incomparably more precious. We esteem the soul most precious of all for the reason, as Macarius the Great says , that God did not deign to communicate and unite His spiritual nature with anything, not with any visible creature, but with one man, whom He loved more than all His creatures (Macarius the Great, Sermon on the Freedom of the Mind, Ch. 32). Basil the Great , Gregory the Theologian , John Chrysostom , Cyril of Alexandria , Ambrose of Milan , and others were virgins from youth to the end of their lives; their entire lives were devoted to caring for the soul, not the body. So too, we should devote all our attention to the soul, and strengthen the body only so that it may contribute to the strengthening of the spirit.
What should the soul be supplied with?
The soul must be supplied with the word of God: for the word of God, as Gregory the Theologian says , is the bread of angels, upon which souls that hunger for God are nourished. Above all, one should practice reading the New Testament and the Psalter, which is what one should do. From this comes enlightenment of the mind, which is transformed by divine change.
We must train ourselves so that our minds float in the law of the Lord, which we must use to guide us in arranging our lives.
It is very beneficial to engage in reading God's word in solitude and to read the entire Bible intelligently. For this exercise alone, in addition to other good deeds, the Lord will not withhold His mercy from a person, but will fill him with the gift of understanding.
When a person supplies his soul with the word of God, then he is filled with the understanding of what is good and what is evil.
The reading of the word of God must be done in solitude so that the whole mind of the reader is immersed in the truths of Holy Scripture and receives from it the warmth that in solitude produces tears; from this a person is completely warmed and filled with spiritual gifts that delight the mind and heart more than any word.
Bodily labor and exercise in the Divine Scriptures, teaches the Monk Isaac the Syrian , protect purity.
Until he receives the Comforter, man has need of the Divine Scriptures, so that the memory of the good may be imprinted in his mind and, through unceasing reading, his striving for good may be renewed and his soul may be protected from the subtle paths of sin (Isaac the Syrian, Word 58).
It is also necessary to supply the soul with knowledge about the Church, how it has been preserved from the beginning until now, what it has endured at one time or another - to know this not in order to want to control people, but in case of possible questions.
Most of all, one must do this for oneself, in order to acquire peace of mind, according to the teaching of the Psalmist: Great peace have they who love thy law ( Ps. 119:165 ).
About spiritual peace
For nothing is better than peace in Christ, in whom every warfare of the spirits of the air and the earth is destroyed: for we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual wickedness in the heavenly places ( Eph. 6:12 ).
The sign of a rational soul is when a person immerses his mind within himself and works within his heart. Then the grace of God overshadows him, and he finds himself in a peaceful state, and through this, in a transcendental state: peaceful, that is, with a good conscience, and transcendental, for the mind contemplates within itself the grace of the Holy Spirit.
Is it possible to see the sun with our physical eyes and not rejoice? But how much more joyful is it when the mind sees with its inner eye the Sun of Righteousness, Christ. Then it truly rejoices with angelic joy; of this the apostle also said: "For our citizenship is in heaven" ( Phil. 3:20 ).
When someone walks in a peaceful order, he draws spiritual gifts as if with a spoon.
The Holy Fathers, having a peaceful disposition and being overshadowed by the grace of God, lived long.
When a person comes to a peaceful state, then he can, from himself and on others, shed the light of enlightenment of the mind; but before this, a person must repeat these words of the prophetess Anna: Do not let bold words come out of your mouth ( 1 Samuel 2:3 ), and the words of the Lord: First take the beam out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye ( Matthew 7:5 ).
Our Lord Jesus Christ left this peace, like some priceless treasure, to His disciples before His death, saying, " Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you" ( John 14:27 ). The Apostle also speaks of it: "And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus" ( Phil. 4:7 ). Unless a person neglects worldly needs, he cannot have peace of mind.
Peace of mind is acquired through sorrow. Scripture says, " We went through fire and water, and You brought us out into freedom" ( Psalm 66:12 ). Those who desire to please God must endure many sorrows.
Nothing contributes to the acquisition of inner peace so much as silence and, as far as possible, constant conversation with oneself and, occasionally, with others.
So, we must focus all our thoughts, desires and actions on receiving God's peace and always cry out with the Church: Lord! You give us peace ( Isaiah 26:12 ).
On maintaining peace of mind
One must strive by all means to maintain peace of mind and not be outraged by insults from others; for this, one must strive in every way to restrain anger and, through attention, guard the mind and heart from indecent movements.
Such an exercise can bring silence to the human heart and make it an abode for God Himself.
We see an example of such angerlessness in St. Gregory the Wonderworker , whose harlot wife asked him for a reward in a public place, supposedly for a sin she had committed with her. He, not at all angry with her, meekly said to a friend: "Give her the price she demands quickly." The woman, having just accepted the unjust reward, was attacked by a demon; the saint drove the demon away from her with prayer (Minei Readings, November 17, in his life).
If it is impossible not to become indignant, then at least one must try to hold one's tongue, according to the words of the psalmist: I am shaken and cannot speak ( Ps. 76:5 ).
In this case, we can take as an example St. Spyridon of Trimythous and St. Ephraim the Syrian . The former (Chet. Min., December 12, in his life) endured an insult in the following way: when, at the request of the Greek emperor, he was entering the palace, one of the servants who was in the king's chamber, considering him a beggar, laughed at him, did not let him into the chamber, and then struck him on the cheek; St. Spyridon, being meek, according to the word of the Lord, turned the other way ( Matt. 5:39 ). St. Ephraim (Chet. Min., January 28, in his life), fasting in the desert, was deprived of food by a disciple in this way: the disciple, carrying food to him, reluctantly broke the vessel on the way. The monk, seeing the sad disciple, said to him: “Do not grieve, brother, for if food did not want to come to us, then we will go to it,” and he went, sat down by the broken vessel and, collecting the food, ate it: so he was without anger.
And how to conquer anger, this can be seen from the life of the great Paisios (Christian Minutes, June 19, in his life), who asked the Lord Jesus Christ, Who appeared to him, that He free him from anger; and Christ said to him: "If you want to conquer anger and wrath together, do not desire anything, do not hate anyone, do not despise anyone . "
In order to maintain peace of mind, one must distance oneself from despondency and try to have a joyful spirit, not a sad one, according to the word of Sirach: for sorrow has killed many, and there is no benefit in it ( Sirach 30:25 ).
When a person is severely deficient in the things necessary for the body, it is difficult to overcome despondency. But this, of course, applies to weak souls.
To maintain peace of mind, one must also avoid judging others at all costs. Peace of mind is preserved through non-judgment and silence: when a person is in such a state, they receive divine revelations.
To preserve spiritual peace, one must often enter into oneself and ask: "Where am I?" At the same time, one must ensure that the bodily senses, especially sight, serve the inner man and do not distract the soul with sensory objects, for only those who practice inner work and watch over their souls receive the gifts of grace.
About keeping the heart
We must vigilantly guard our hearts from indecent thoughts and impressions, according to the words of the Proverb: Keep your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the issues of life ( Prov. 4:23 ).
From the vigilant keeping of the heart, purity is born in it, for which the vision of the Lord is accessible, according to the assurance of the eternal Truth: Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God ( Matthew 5:8 ).
What has flowed into the heart of the best, we must not pour out unnecessarily; for only then can what has been collected be safe from visible and invisible enemies when it is kept, like a treasure, in the depths of the heart.
The heart only boils, being kindled by the Divine fire, when there is living water in it; when it is all poured out, then it cools down, and the person freezes.
About thoughts and carnal movements
We must be pure from impure thoughts, especially when we offer prayer to God, for there is no harmony between stench and fragrance. Wherever thoughts are, there is also a reconciliation with them. Therefore, we must repel the first assault of sinful thoughts and dispel them from the earth of our hearts. While the children of Babylon, that is, evil thoughts, are still infants, we must smash and crush them against the rock that is Christ. Especially the three cardinal passions—gluttony, avarice, and vanity—with which the devil sought to tempt even our Lord Himself at the end of His struggle in the desert.
The devil, like a lion, lurks in secret places ( Psalm 9:30 ), secretly laying a net of impure and ungodly thoughts for us. Therefore, as soon as we see them, we must immediately break them through pious meditation and prayer.
It takes effort and great vigilance to ensure that our mind aligns with our heart and lips during psalmody, so that the incense of our prayer is not mingled with stench. For the Lord abhors a heart with impure thoughts.
Let us continually, day and night, with tears cast ourselves before the face of God's goodness, that He may cleanse our hearts from every evil thought, so that we may worthily walk the path of our calling and with pure hands bring Him the gifts of our service.
If we do not agree with the evil thoughts implanted by the devil, then we do good. The unclean spirit has a strong influence only on the passionate; but it attacks those cleansed of passions only from the outside, or externally.
Is it possible for a person in their youth not to be consumed and troubled by carnal thoughts? But one must pray to the Lord God that the spark of vicious passions be extinguished at their very inception. Then the flame of passions will not grow stronger within one.
On the recognition of cardiac actions
When a person receives something divine, the heart rejoices; but when something devilish, it becomes confused.
The Christian heart, having accepted something Divine, does not yet require any other kind of conviction as to whether it is truly from the Lord; but by that very action it is convinced that it is heavenly: for it senses within itself the fruits of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, meekness, self-control ( Gal. 5:22 ).
On the contrary, even if the devil were to transform himself into an angel of light ( 2 Cor. 11:14 ), or to present plausible thoughts, the heart nevertheless still feels a certain confusion and unrest in its thoughts. Explaining this, St. Macarius of Egypt says: "Even if he (Satan) presented luminous visions, he would still be unable to effect a beneficial effect; through this, a certain sign of his deeds is produced" (Homily 4, Chapter 13).
Thus, from these various actions of the heart, a person can know what is divine and what is diabolical, as St. Gregory of Sinai writes about this : “From the action, then, you will be able to know whether the light that has shone in your soul is God’s or Satan’s” (Philokalia, Part 1. Gregory of Sinai , On Silence).
About repentance
Anyone who desires salvation must always have a heart disposed and contrite toward repentance, according to the Psalmist: " The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and contrite heart, O God, You will not despise" ( Psalm 51:19 ). With such contrition of spirit, a person can easily and safely pass through the cunning wiles of the proud devil, whose every effort is to disturb the human spirit and, in the turmoil, sow his tares, according to the words of the Gospel: "Lord, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where then are its tares?" And he said to them, "An enemy has done this" ( Matthew 13:27-28 ).
When a person tries to have a humble heart and a thought that is not disturbed, but peaceful, then all the wiles of the enemy become ineffective, for where there is peace of thoughts, there the Lord God Himself rests - His place is in peace ( Ps. 75:3 ).
The beginning of repentance comes from the fear of God and attention, as the martyr Boniface says (Chetyi Menaion, December 19, in his life): “The fear of God is the father of attention, and attention is the mother of inner peace, which is engendered by the conscience that does this, so that the soul, as in some pure and undisturbed water, sees its own ugliness, and thus the beginnings and root of repentance are born.”
Throughout our lives, we offend the majesty of God with our sins, and therefore we must always humble ourselves before Him, asking for forgiveness of our debts.
Is it possible for a blessed person to rise up after a fall?
It is possible, according to the Psalmist: They pushed me hard so that I fell, but the Lord supported me ( Psalm 117:13 ), for when Nathan the prophet rebuked David for his sin, he repented and immediately received forgiveness ( 2 Samuel 12:13 ).
An example of this is the hermit who, having gone to fetch water, fell into sin with his wife at the spring. Returning to his cell, realizing his sin, he again began to lead an ascetic life as before, ignoring the advice of the enemy, who pointed out the gravity of his sin and tried to turn him away from the ascetic life. God revealed this incident to a certain father and commanded him to bless the brother who had fallen into sin for his victory over the devil.
When we sincerely repent of our sins and turn to our Lord Jesus Christ with all our hearts, He rejoices over us, establishes a feast, and summons His beloved powers to it, showing them the drachma He has acquired again, that is, His royal image and likeness. Placing the lost sheep upon His shoulders, He brings it to His Father. In the dwellings of all who rejoice, God also places the soul of the repentant one, along with those who have not fled from Him.
So, let us not neglect to turn quickly to our compassionate Master, nor give in to carelessness and despair because of our grave and countless sins. Despair is the devil's greatest joy. It is the sin unto death, as Scripture declares ( 1 John 5:16 ).
Repentance for sin, by the way, consists of not committing it again. Just as every illness has a cure, so every sin has a repentance. So, approach repentance without hesitation, and it will intercede for you before God.
About prayer
Those who have truly resolved to serve the Lord God must practice the remembrance of God and unceasing prayer to Jesus Christ, saying mentally: "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner." In the afternoon hours, one can say this prayer thus: "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, through the prayers of the Mother of God, have mercy on me, a sinner." Or one can resort directly to the Most Holy Theotokos, praying: "Most Holy Theotokos, save us"; or one can say the angelic greeting: "Virgin Mary, rejoice."
By such exercise, while guarding oneself from distraction and maintaining peace of conscience, one can draw closer to God and unite with Him. For, according to the words of St. Isaac the Syrian , we cannot draw closer to God except through unceasing prayer (Homily 69).
St. Simeon the New Theologian very well described the image of prayer (Philokalia, Part 1). Its dignity was also well described by St. Chrysostom: "Prayer is a great weapon, an inexhaustible treasure, a never-failing riches, a haven without turmoil, the root, source, and mother of myriad blessings" (Margaret, Homily 5: On the Incomprehensible).
In church, during prayer, it is useful to stand with your eyes closed in inner attention; open your eyes only when you become despondent, or sleep weighs you down and makes you drowsy; then your eyes should be directed to the icon and the candle burning before it.
If in prayer one happens to be captivated by the mind and the theft of thoughts, then one must humble oneself before the Lord God and ask for forgiveness, saying: “I have sinned, Lord, in word, deed, thought and with all my feelings.”
Therefore, we must always strive not to give ourselves over to the scattering of thoughts, for through this the soul deviates from the memory of God and His love through the action of the devil, as St. Macarius says: “All this effort of our adversary is to turn our thoughts away from the remembrance of God and fear and love” (Word 2, Chapter 15).
When the mind and heart are united in prayer and the thoughts of the soul are not scattered, then the heart is warmed by spiritual warmth, in which the light of Christ shines, filling the entire inner man with peace and joy.
About tears
All the saints and monks who renounced the world wept throughout their lives in the hope of eternal consolation, according to the assurance of the Savior of the world: Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted ( Matthew 5:4 ).
So we too must weep for the forgiveness of our sins. Let us be convinced of this by the words of the Porphyry-Bearer: " He who weeps and bears seed shall return with joy, bringing his sheaves" ( Psalm 125:6 ), and by the words of St. Isaac the Syrian : "Wet your cheeks with weeping, that the Holy Spirit may rest upon you and wash you from the filth of your wickedness. Propitiate your Lord with tears, that He may come to you" (Homily 68: On Renunciation of the World).
When we weep in prayer and laughter immediately intervenes, it is the devil's cunning. It is difficult to comprehend our enemy's secret and subtle actions.
He who sheds tears of tenderness has his heart illuminated by the rays of the Sun of Truth – Christ God.
About the light of Christ
To receive and behold the light of Christ in the heart, one must, as much as possible, distract oneself from visible objects. Having purified the soul through repentance and good deeds and closed the physical eyes with faith in the Crucified One, one must immerse the mind within the heart and cry out with the invocation of the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Then, according to the zeal and fervor of the spirit for the Beloved, one finds in the name invoked a delight that arouses the desire to seek higher enlightenment.
When through such exercise the mind becomes steadfast in the heart, then the light of Christ shines, illuminating the temple of the soul with its Divine radiance, as the prophet Malachi says: The Sun of righteousness shall arise with healing in his wings ( Mal. 4:2 ).
This light is also life according to the Gospel word: In Him was life, and the life was the light of men ( John 1:4 ).
When a person contemplates the eternal light within, his mind is pure and contains no sensory perceptions, but, being completely absorbed in the contemplation of uncreated goodness, he forgets everything sensory and does not want to see himself; but desires to hide in the heart of the earth, if only not to be deprived of this true good – God.
About paying attention to oneself
Those who walk the path of attention should not trust only their own hearts, but should compare their heart's actions and their lives with the law of God and with the active lives of ascetics of piety who have undergone such a struggle. This means one can more easily escape the evil one and perceive the truth more clearly.
The mind of an attentive person is like a posted guard, or a vigilant custodian of the inner Jerusalem. Standing at the heights of spiritual contemplation, he looks with an eye of purity upon the hostile forces that surround and attack his soul, as the Psalmist says: " And mine eye hath looked upon mine enemies" ( Psalm 54:9 ).
From his eye the devil is not hidden, like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour ( 1 Pet. 5:8 ), nor those who bend their bow to shoot in the darkness at the upright in heart ( Ps. 10:2 ).
Therefore, such a person, following the teaching of the Divine Paul, takes up the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to withstand in the evil day ( Eph. 6:13 ), and with these weapons, cooperating with the grace of God, repels visible attacks and defeats invisible warriors.
One who walks this path should not listen to extraneous rumors, from which the head can be filled with idle and vain thoughts and memories, but should be attentive to himself.
On this path one must be especially careful not to focus on other people’s affairs, not to think or talk about them, according to the Psalmist: My lips shall not speak of the deeds of men ( Ps. 16:4 ), but to pray to the Lord: Cleanse me from my secret deeds, and keep Your servant from deliberate ones ( Ps. 18:13–14 ).
A person should pay attention to the beginning and end of their life, but be indifferent to the middle, where happiness or misfortune occurs. To maintain focus, one must withdraw into oneself, according to the Lord's words: " Salute no one on the road" ( Luke 10:4 ), that is, do not speak unnecessarily, unless someone is running after you to hear something useful from you.
About the fear of God
A person who has taken upon himself the path of inner attention must first of all have the fear of God, which is the beginning of wisdom.
These prophetic words should always be imprinted on his mind: Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice [before Him] with trembling ( Ps. 2:11 ).
He must walk this path with extreme caution and reverence for all that is sacred, and not carelessly. Otherwise, he must be wary lest this divine decree apply to him: "Cursed be he who does the work of the Lord carelessly" ( Jer. 48:10 ).
Reverent caution is needed here so that this sea, great and vast: there are creeping things without number ( Ps. 103:25 ), i.e. many vain, unrighteous and impure thoughts, the offspring of evil spirits, i.e. the heart with its thoughts and desires, which must be purified through attention.
Fear God, says the Wise One, and keep His commandments ( Ecclesiastes 12:13 ). And by keeping the commandments, you will be powerful in everything you do, and your work will always be good. For by fearing God, you will do everything well out of love for Him. But do not fear the devil; whoever fears God will overcome the devil; for him the devil is powerless.
There are two kinds of fear: if you do not want to do evil, then fear the Lord and do not do it; but if you want to do good, then fear the Lord and do it.
But no one can acquire the fear of God until they are freed from all worldly cares. When the mind is free from cares, then the fear of God moves it and draws it to the love of God's goodness.
On Renunciation of the World
The fear of God is acquired when a person, having renounced the world and everything in the world, concentrates all his thoughts and feelings on one idea of the law of God and is completely immersed in the contemplation of God and in the feeling of the bliss promised to the saints.
It is impossible to renounce the world and attain a state of spiritual contemplation while remaining in the world. For until the passions subside, peace of mind cannot be attained. But passions will not subside as long as we are surrounded by objects that arouse them. To attain complete dispassion and perfect stillness of soul, one must strive hard in spiritual reflection and prayer. But how is it possible to completely and calmly immerse oneself in the contemplation of God, to meditate on His law, and to ascend to Him with one's whole soul in fervent prayer, while remaining amid the incessant din of passions warring in the world? The world lies in evil.
Without freeing itself from the world, the soul cannot love God sincerely. For worldly things, according to St. Antiochus, are like a veil for it.
"If we," says the same teacher, "live in a foreign city, and our city is far from this city, and if we know our city: then why do we linger in a foreign city and prepare fields and dwellings for ourselves in it? How can we sing the song of the Lord in a foreign land? ( Psalm 136:4 ) This world is the domain of another, that is, the prince of this age" (Word 15).
On the active and speculative life
A person consists of a body and a soul, and therefore his path in life must consist of physical and mental actions – of action and contemplation.
The path of active life consists of fasting, abstinence, vigilance, genuflection, prayer , and other physical struggles, which constitute the narrow and sorrowful path, which, according to the word of God, leads to eternal life. The path of contemplative life consists of raising the mind to the Lord God, in heartfelt attention, mental prayer, and contemplation of spiritual things through such exercises.
Anyone who wishes to live a spiritual life must begin with the active life, and then come to the contemplative life: for without the active life it is impossible to come to the contemplative life.
An active life serves to cleanse us from sinful passions and elevates us to the level of active perfection; thereby, it paves the way for us to the contemplative life. For only those who are cleansed from passions and perfect can approach this life, as can be seen from the words of Holy Scripture: " Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God" ( Matthew 5:8 ) and from the words of St. Gregory the Theologian : "Only those who are most perfect in their experience can approach contemplation safely" (Homily on Holy Pascha).
One must approach the contemplative life with fear and trembling, with contrition and humility, with much examination of the Holy Scriptures and, if possible, under the guidance of some skilled elder, and not with insolence and self-will: “For the insolent and arrogant,” according to Gregory of Sinai , “having sought with pride beyond his dignity, is forced to reach this point before his time. – And again: if someone dreams of achieving high things by his opinion, a desire of Satan, and not having acquired the truth, the devil easily catches him with his nets, as if he were his servant” (On Delusion and Many Other Pretexts. Philokalia, Part 1).
If it is not possible to find a mentor who can guide one to a contemplative life, then in that case one must be guided by the Holy Scriptures, for the Lord Himself commands us to learn from the Holy Scriptures, saying: Search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life ( John 5:39 ).
One must also strive to read the writings of the Fathers and try, as much as possible, to the best of one's ability to fulfill what they teach, and thus, little by little, rise from an active life to the perfection of the contemplative life.
For, according to the words of St. Gregory the Theologian , the best thing is when we each achieve perfection ourselves and offer to God who calls us a living sacrifice, holy and always sanctified in everything (Homily on Holy Easter).
One should not abandon active life even when a person has succeeded in it and has already come to the contemplative life: for it promotes the contemplative life and elevates it.
While pursuing the inner and contemplative life, we must not weaken or abandon it, for those attached to externals and sensuality strike us with the contradiction of their opinions, even to the very core of our hearts, and strive in every way to distract us from following the inner path, placing various obstacles along it. For, according to the opinion of the Church teachers (Blessed Theodoret, "Commentary on the Song of Songs"), contemplation of spiritual things is preferable to knowledge of sensory things. Therefore, we must not waver in this pursuit of this path due to any contradictions, but rather rely on the word of God: " Fear not what he fears, and do not be dismayed. The Lord of hosts—Him ye shall honor as holy, and He shall be your fear" ( Isaiah 8:12-13 ).
On solitude and silence
Above all, one should adorn oneself with silence; for Ambrose of Milan says: "I have seen many saved by silence, but not one by verbosity." And again one of the Fathers says: "Silence is a mystery of the age to come, but words are a weapon of this world" (Philokalia, Part 2, Chapter 16).
You just sit in your cell in attention and silence and try by all means to bring yourself closer to the Lord, and the Lord is ready to make you from a man into an angel: “ To whom will I look, ” He says, “ to him who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at the word” ( Is. 66:2 ).
When we remain in silence, then the enemy-devil does not succeed in anything in relation to the hidden heart of a person, this should be understood about silence in the mind.
Anyone undergoing such a struggle must place all their trust in the Lord God, according to the teaching of the Apostle: Cast all your care on Him, for He cares for you ( 1 Pet. 5:7 ). One must be constant in this struggle, following in this case the example of St. John the Silent and Hermit (Chetyi Menaion, Dec. 3, in his life), who, while walking this path, was strengthened by these divine words: I will never leave you nor forsake you ( Heb. 13:5 ).
If it is not always possible to remain in solitude and silence, living in a monastery and carrying out the obediences imposed by the abbot, then at least some time remaining from obedience should be devoted to solitude and silence, and for this little the Lord God will not fail to send down upon you His rich mercy.
Solitude and silence give birth to tenderness and meekness; the action of the latter in the human heart can be likened to the quiet waters of Siloam, which flow without noise and sound, as the prophet Isaiah says about it: the waters of Siloam, flowing quietly ( Isaiah 8:6 ).
Staying in a cell in silence, exercise, prayer and study of the law of God day and night makes a person pious: for, according to the words of the holy fathers, a monk’s cell is “the furnace of Babylon, in which the three youths found the Son of God” (Philokalia, part 3. Peter Damascene , book 1).
A monk, according to Ephraim the Syrian , will not remain long in one place unless he first loves silence and abstinence. For silence teaches stillness and constant prayer, and abstinence keeps thoughts undistracted. Finally, a peaceful state awaits those who have acquired this (v. 2).
On verbosity
Just talking too much with those who have morals that are contrary to ours is enough to upset the innermost thoughts of an attentive person.
But the most pitiful thing is that this could extinguish the fire that our Lord Jesus Christ came to bring to the earth of human hearts: for nothing so cools the fire that the Holy Spirit breathes into the heart of a monk for the sanctification of the soul as discussion, verbosity, and conversation (Isaac the Syrian. Word 8).
One should especially guard oneself from communication with the female sex: for, as a wax candle, although not lit, but placed among the lit ones, melts, so the heart of a monk from conversation with the female sex imperceptibly weakens, about which St. Isidore of Pelusium speaks thus: “If (speaking to the scripture) such evil conversations corrupt good customs: then conversation with women, even if it is good, is nevertheless strong enough to corrupt the inner man secretly with filthy thoughts, and the soul, although pure in body, will remain defiled: for what is hard to it is a stone, what is softer than water, however constant diligence and nature overcomes; “If, then, nature, which is hardly mobile, struggles, and suffers and is diminished by that thing which it has for nothing, then how can the human will, which is easily shaken, not be defeated and transformed by long habit” (Isidore of Pelusium. Letter 284; Menaion Readers, February 4, in his life).
Therefore, to preserve the inner man, one must try to restrain the tongue from much talk: but a prudent man keeps silence ( Prov. 11:12 ), and whoever guards his mouth preserves his soul ( Prov. 13:3 ).
One must not answer a question without first hearing it from someone: for whoever answers a word before hearing it is foolishness and a reproach to him ( Prov. 18:13 ).
About silence
St. Barsanuphius teaches: "As long as a ship is at sea, it endures troubles and the assaults of the winds, but when it reaches a quiet and peaceful haven, it no longer fears troubles, sorrows, and the assaults of the winds, but remains in silence. So too, monk, as long as you remain with people, expect troubles, sorrows, and the assaults of the spiritual winds; but when you enter into silence, you have nothing to fear" (Barsanuphius the Great and John. Answers 8:9).
"Perfect silence is a cross on which a person must crucify himself, along with all his passions and lusts. But consider how much our Master Christ endured beforehand, how much reproach and insult, and only then ascended the cross. So too, we cannot attain perfect silence and hope for holy perfection unless we suffer with Christ. For the Apostle says: ' If we suffer with Him, we shall also be glorified with Him.' There is no other way" (Barsanuphius the Great, Answer, 342).
One who has come to silence must constantly remember why he came, so that his heart does not turn to anything else.
About fasting
Before setting out on the feat of redemption for the human race, our Lord Jesus Christ, the Initiator and Savior, strengthened Himself with a prolonged fast. And all ascetics, beginning their service to the Lord, armed themselves with fasting and embarked on the path of the cross only in the feat of fasting. They measured their success in asceticism by their success in fasting.
Fasting consists not only of eating rarely, but of eating little; and not of eating once, but of not eating much. The faster who waits for a specific time and then, at mealtime, gives himself over entirely to insatiable eating, both body and mind, is foolish. When considering food, one must also be careful not to discriminate between tasty and unpalatable foods. This, characteristic of animals, is unworthy of praise in a rational person. We renounce pleasant foods in order to calm the warring members of the flesh and give free rein to the spirit.
True fasting does not consist only in the exhaustion of the flesh, but also in giving that part of the bread that you yourself would like to eat to the hungry.
The holy men did not suddenly adopt strict fasting, but gradually and little by little became capable of contenting themselves with the merest food. St. Dorotheus, accustoming his disciple Dositheus to fasting, gradually reduced his daily food intake from four pounds to eight lots of bread.
Yet, to the astonishment of others, the holy fasters knew no relaxation, but were always alert, strong, and ready for action. Illnesses were rare among them, and their lives were exceptionally long.
To the extent that the fasting person's flesh becomes refined and light, spiritual life reaches perfection and reveals itself through wondrous manifestations. Then the spirit performs its actions as if in a disembodied body. The external senses are seemingly closed, and the mind, detached from the earth, ascends to heaven and becomes completely immersed in contemplation of the spiritual world.
However, not everyone can compel themselves to a strict rule of abstinence in everything or to deprive themselves of everything that can serve to alleviate their infirmities. He who is able to accept this, let him accept it ( Matthew 19:12 ).
One should consume food every day in such a quantity that the body, having become strengthened, becomes a friend and helper to the soul in the accomplishment of virtue; otherwise, it may happen that, having exhausted the body, the soul will also weaken.
On Fridays and Wednesdays, and especially during the four fasts, eat food once a day, following the example of the fathers, and the Angel of the Lord will cleave to you.
About exploits
We should not undertake feats beyond measure, but strive to ensure that our friend – our flesh – is faithful and capable of creating virtues.
We must walk the middle path, not turning to the right or to the left ( Proverbs 4:27 ); we must give to the spirit what is spiritual, and to the body what is physical, necessary for the maintenance of temporal life. We must also not deny social life what it rightfully demands of us, according to the words of Scripture: " Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's" ( Matthew 22:21 ).
We must be condescending to our soul in its weaknesses and imperfections and tolerate our shortcomings, as we tolerate the shortcomings of our neighbors, but not become lazy and constantly motivate ourselves to do better.
If you have consumed too much food, or done something similar to this, akin to human weakness, do not be disturbed by this, do not add harm to harm; but, having courageously moved yourself to correction, try to maintain peace of mind, according to the word of the Apostle: Blessed is he who does not condemn himself in what he chooses ( Rom. 14:22 ).
A body exhausted by struggles or illnesses must be strengthened by moderate sleep, food, and drink, without even observing the time. Jesus Christ, after raising Jairus' daughter from the dead, immediately commanded that she be given something to eat ( Luke 8:55 ).
If we willfully exhaust our body to the point that our spirit also becomes exhausted, then such oppression will be reckless, even if it is done for the sake of gaining virtue.
Until the age of thirty-five, that is, until the middle of one's earthly life, a person faces a great challenge in self-preservation. Many do not persevere in virtue during these years, but are led astray from the right path to their own desires, as St. Basil the Great testifies (in his homily on the beginning of the Book of Proverbs): "Many have accumulated much in their youth, but in the midst of life, when temptations from the spirits of evil arose against them, they could not endure the turmoil and lost all. Therefore, to avoid such a transformation, one must place oneself, as it were, on a standard of testing and careful self-observation, according to the teaching of St. Isaac the Syrian: 'As on a standard, it befits each one to measure his life'" (Homily 40).
We must attribute every success in anything to the Lord and say with the prophet: Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to Your name give glory ( Ps. 113:9 ).
On vigilance against temptations
We must always be alert to the devil's attacks: for can we hope that he will leave us without temptation when he has not left the very Author of our struggle, the Author of our faith, and the Finisher of our Lord Jesus Christ? The Lord Himself said to the Apostle Peter: "Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has desired to sift you as wheat " ( Luke 22:31 ).
So, we must always humbly call upon the Lord and pray that He will not allow us to be tempted beyond our strength, but that He will deliver us from the evil one.
For when the Lord leaves a man to himself, then the devil is ready to grind him down, like a millstone grinding a grain of wheat.
About sadness
When the evil spirit of sorrow takes possession of the soul, it fills it with grief and vexation, preventing it from praying with due diligence, hindering it from reading the Scriptures with due attention, depriving it of meekness and complacency in its dealings with the brethren, and engendering an aversion to all conversation. For a soul filled with sorrow, becoming as if mad and frantic, cannot calmly accept good advice or meekly answer questions. It flees people as the cause of its confusion, and does not understand that the cause of its illness lies within. Sorrow is a worm of the heart, gnawing at the mother who bears it.
A sad monk does not move his mind to contemplation and can never perform pure prayer.
He who conquers passions has conquered sorrow. But he who is conquered by passions will not escape the shackles of sorrow. Just as a sick person is revealed by his complexion, so one who is overcome by passion is revealed by his sorrow.
He who loves peace cannot help but be sad. But he who despises peace is always cheerful.
“As fire purifies gold, so sorrow for God purifies a sinful heart” (Anthony the Great, Word 25).
About boredom and despondency
Boredom is inseparably linked with the spirit of sadness. According to the Fathers, it attacks a monk around midday and produces such terrible restlessness that both his residence and the brothers living with him become unbearable, while reading arouses a kind of disgust, frequent yawning, and intense hunger. After his stomach is sated, the demon of boredom inspires the monk with the desire to leave his cell and talk to someone, imagining that the only way to rid himself of boredom is through constant conversation with others. A monk overcome by boredom is like a desolate brushwood, which sometimes stops for a moment, then again is carried by the wind. He is like a waterless cloud driven by the wind.
This demon, if he can't draw a monk out of his cell, begins to distract his mind during prayer and reading. This, the thought tells him, is not right, this is not here, it needs to be put in order, and all this is done to make the mind idle and fruitless.
“This illness is healed by prayer, abstinence from idle talk, feasible handicrafts, reading the word of God and patience; because it is born from faintheartedness and idleness and idle talk” (Anthony the Great, Word 26; Isaac the Syrian, Word 212).
It's difficult for someone beginning the monastic life to avoid it, for it's the first thing to attack them. Therefore, one must guard against it first and foremost through strict and unquestioning fulfillment of all the duties imposed upon the novice. When your studies are truly orderly, boredom will find no place in your heart. Only those who are out of order are bored. Therefore, obedience is the best cure for this dangerous disease.
When boredom overcomes you, then tell yourself, according to the advice of St. Isaac the Syrian: “You again desire impurity and a shameful life. – And if the thought tells you: It is a great sin to kill yourself,” you say to it: I kill myself because I cannot live impurely. I will die here, so as not to see the true death – my soul in relation to God. It is better for me to die here for purity than to live an evil life in the world. I prefer this death to my sins. I will kill myself, because I have sinned against the Lord and will no longer anger Him. Why should I live apart from God? I will endure these hardships, so as not to lose my heavenly hope. What is my life to God if I live badly and anger Him?” (Word 22).
Boredom is one thing, and the weariness of spirit known as despondency is another. Sometimes a person finds himself in such a state of mind that it seems easier to be destroyed or to be without any feeling or consciousness than to remain in this unconscious, tormenting state any longer. One must hasten to emerge from it. "Beware of the spirit of despondency, for from it all evil is born" (Barsanuphius the Great, Answer, 73, 500).
"There is natural despondency," teaches St. Barsanuphius, "from impotence, and there is despondency from the demon. Do you want to know this? Try it this way: the demonic comes before the time when you should give yourself rest. For when someone sets out to do something, it compels him to abandon the task and get up before a third or a quarter of it is completed. Then you should not listen to it, but rather say a prayer and sit patiently at the task.
And the enemy, seeing that he is therefore performing prayer, withdraws, because he does not want to give a reason for prayer” (Vare. Answer 562–565).
“When God pleases,” says St. Isaac the Syrian , “having plunged a person into great sorrows, He allows him to fall into the hands of cowardice. This gives birth to a powerful despondency in him, in which he experiences spiritual anguish, and this is a foretaste of Gehenna. As a result, a spirit of frenzy comes upon him, from which come a thousand temptations: confusion, rage, blasphemy, complaints about one’s lot, corrupt thoughts, migration from place to place, and the like. If you ask: what is the reason for this? I will say: your negligence, because you did not take the trouble to seek a cure for them. For there is one cure for all this, with the help of which a person quickly finds consolation in his soul. And what is this cure? Humility of heart. “Without anything else, a person cannot destroy the stronghold of these vices, but on the contrary, he finds that they prevail over him” (Isaac the Syrian. Word 79).
Despondency in the Holy Fathers is sometimes called idleness, laziness and sloth.
About despair
Just as the Lord cares for our salvation, so the murderer – the devil – tries to bring man to despair.
Despair, according to the teaching of St. John Climacus , is born either from the awareness of a multitude of sins, a despairing conscience, and unbearable sorrow, when the soul, covered with a multitude of wounds, plunges into the depths of despair from their unbearable pain, or from pride and arrogance, when one considers oneself undeserving of the sin into which one has fallen. The first kind of despair draws a person into all vices indiscriminately, while in the second kind of despair, a person still holds on to one's struggle, which, according to St. John Climacus, is not consistent with reason. The former is healed by abstinence and good hope, and the latter by humility and non-judgment of one's neighbor (Ladder. Step 26).
A lofty and steadfast soul does not despair in the face of adversity, no matter what. Judas the traitor was cowardly and unskilled in warfare, and so the enemy, seeing his despair, attacked him and forced him to hang himself. But Peter, a rock-solid man, when he fell into great sin , being skilled in warfare, did not despair or lose heart, but shed bitter tears from a burning heart. The enemy, seeing them, as if scorched by fire in his eyes, fled far from him with a painful cry.
So, brothers, teaches St. Antiochus, when despair assails us, let us not submit to it, but, "strengthening ourselves and protecting ourselves with the light of faith, let us with great courage say to the evil spirit: What are we to you, alienated from God, fugitive from heaven and evil servant? You dare not do anything to us."
"Christ, the Son of God, has power over us and over all. We have sinned against Him. By Him we are justified. But you, pernicious one, depart from us. Strengthened by His precious cross, we trample upon your serpentine head" (Anthony the Great, Sermon 27).
About diseases
The body is the slave of the soul, the soul is the queen, and therefore it is the mercy of the Lord when the body is exhausted by illnesses; for from this the passions weaken, and the person comes to his senses; and bodily illness itself is sometimes born from passions.
Take away sin, and illnesses will disappear; for they arise in us from sin, as St. Basil the Great affirms : “Where do illnesses come from? Where do bodily harms come from? The Lord created the body, not illness; the soul, not sin. What, then, is most beneficial and necessary? Union with God and communion with Him through love. By losing this love, we fall away from Him, and by falling away, we are subject to various and varied illnesses” (Homily on God Not Being the Cause of Evil).
He who endures illness with patience and gratitude, it is considered to be a feat or even more.
One elder, who suffered from dropsy, said to the brothers who came to him with the desire to heal him: “Fathers, pray that my inner man will not be subjected to a similar illness; and as for the present illness, I ask God that He not suddenly free me from it, for since our outer man is decaying, the inner one is renewed day by day ( 2 Cor. 4:16 ).”
If the Lord God wills for a person to experience illness, He will also grant him the strength to endure. So, let illnesses not come from ourselves, but from God.
On duties and love for one's neighbors
We must treat our neighbors kindly, without even the appearance of insulting them.
When we turn away from a person or insult him, then it is as if a stone lies on our heart.
The spirit of a troubled or despondent person must be encouraged with a word of love.
"Cover your sinning brother," advises St. Isaac the Syrian , "spread your robe over the sinner and cover him. We all demand God's mercy, as the Church sings: if the Lord were not in us, who would be content to be preserved whole from the enemy, even the murderer" (Word 89).
In our relations with our neighbors, we must be, both in word and thought, pure and equal to all; otherwise we will make our life useless. We must love our neighbors no less than ourselves, according to the commandment of the Lord: “ You shall love your neighbor as yourself” ( Luke 10:27 ). But not in such a way that love for our neighbors, going beyond the boundaries of moderation, distracts us from the fulfillment of the first and main commandment, that is, love for God, as our Lord Jesus Christ teaches: “ Whoever loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and whoever loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me” ( Matthew 10:37 ). St. Demetrius of Rostov discusses this matter very well : “There is seen an untrue love for God in a Christian person, where the creature is compared with the Creator, or the creature is revered more than the Creator; and there true love is visible, where the Creator alone is loved and preferred above all creation” (Part 2, Teaching 2).
On not judging one's neighbor
One should not judge anyone, even if one has seen with one's own eyes someone sinning or persisting in transgressing God's commandments, according to God's word: Judge not, that ye be not judged ( Matthew 7:1 ), and again: Who are you to judge another man's servant? To his own Master he stands or falls. And he will be raised up, for God is able to make him stand ( Rom. 14:4 ).
It is much better to always recall these apostolic words: Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall ( 1 Cor. 10:12 ). For it is unknown how long we can remain in virtue, as the prophet says, having learned this by experience: And I said in my prosperity, I will never be moved... You hid Your face, and I was troubled ( Ps. 29:7-8 ).
Why do we judge our brothers? Because we don't try to know ourselves. He who is busy understanding himself has no time to notice others. Judge yourself, and you will stop judging others.
We must consider ourselves the most sinful of all and forgive every evil deed of our neighbor, hating only the devil who deceived him. It happens that it seems to us that another is doing evil, but in fact, due to the good intentions of the one doing it, it is good. Moreover, the door of repentance is open to all, and it is unknown who will enter it first: you, the one condemning, or the one condemned.
"Condemn a bad deed, but do not condemn the one who does it. If you condemn your neighbor," teaches St. Antiochus, "then you, along with him, are condemned for the very thing for which you condemn him."
"It is not for us to judge or condemn, but for the one God and Great Judge, who knows our hearts and the hidden passions of nature" (Anthony the Great, Sermon 49). To free ourselves from condemnation, we must pay attention to ourselves, not accept extraneous thoughts from anyone, and be dead to everything.
So, beloved, let us not watch the sins of others and judge others, lest we hear: Among the sons of men, whose teeth are spears and arrows, and whose tongue is a sharp sword ( Ps. 56:5 ).
On forgiveness of offenses
For any offense, no matter what it was, not only should one not take revenge, but, on the contrary, one should also forgive the offender from the heart, even if it resists this, and incline him with the conviction of the word of God: If you do not forgive men their trespasses, then your Father will not forgive your trespasses ( Matthew 6:15 ), and again: pray for those who offend you and persecute you ( Matthew 5:44 ).
One should not harbor malice or hatred in one’s heart towards one’s enemy, but one should love him and, as much as possible, do good to him, following the teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ: love your enemies, bless those who curse you ( Matthew 5:44 ).
When someone belittles or takes away your honor, then try by all means to forgive him, according to the words of the Gospel: do not demand it back from him who took away what is yours ( Luke 6:30 ).
God commanded us to be hostile only to the serpent, that is, to the one who initially deceived man and cast him out of Paradise—the murderous devil. We are also commanded to be hostile to the Midianites, that is, to the unclean spirits of fornication and sexual immorality, who sow impure and defiled thoughts in the heart.
Let us emulate God's beloved; let us emulate the meekness of David, of whom the all-good and gracious Lord said: " I have found a man after my heart, who will fulfill all my desires." Thus He speaks of David, forgiving and kind to his enemies. And we will do nothing to take revenge on our brother, so that, as St. Antiochus says, there will be no interruption during prayer.
God testified of Job as a man without malice ( Job 2:3 ); Joseph did not take revenge on his brothers who plotted against him; Abel, in simplicity and without suspicion, went with his brother Cain. According to the testimony of God's word, all the saints lived in meekness. Jeremiah, conversing with God ( Jeremiah 18:20 ), says of Israel, who persecuted him: Are evils repaid for good? Remember me who stood before You, to speak good things for them (Anthony the Great, Homily 52).
So, if we try to do all this with all our strength, then we can hope that the Divine light will shine in our hearts, illuminating our path to the heavenly Jerusalem.
On patience and humility
We must always endure everything, no matter what happens, for God's sake, with gratitude. Our life is but a moment compared to eternity; and therefore, according to the Apostle, temporary sufferings are worth nothing compared to the glory that will be revealed in us ( Rom. 8:18 ).
We must endure insults from others with indifference and train ourselves to adopt a disposition of mind as if their insults were directed not at us but at others. Bear in silence when an enemy insults you, and then open your heart to the Lord alone. When people revile us, we must consider ourselves unworthy of praise. If we were worthy, everyone would bow down to us.
We must always and before everyone humble ourselves, following the teaching of St. Isaac the Syrian: “Humble yourself, and you will see the glory of God in yourself” (Word 57).
Without light, everything is dark, just as without humility, there is nothing in man but darkness. Therefore, let us love humility and behold the glory of God; for where humility flows, there the glory of God flows forth.
Just as wax that has not been heated and softened cannot accept the seal placed upon it, so a soul untested by labors and infirmities cannot receive the seal of God's virtue. When the devil left the Lord, then the angels came and ministered to Him ( Matthew 4:11 ). So, if during temptations the angels of God withdraw from us for a while, they come not far and quickly, and minister to us with divine thoughts, compunction, delight, and patience. The soul, having labored, acquires other perfections. Therefore, the holy prophet Isaiah says: Those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint ( Isaiah 40:31 ).
Thus also did the meek David suffer: for when Shimei reviled him and pelted him with stones, saying, Go away, go away, murderer and wicked man, go away, wicked man, he was not angry. And when Abishai, indignant at this, said to him, Why does this dead dog revile my lord the king? he rebuked him, saying, Let him revile, for the Lord will see and reward me well ( 2 Samuel 16:7–12 ). Wherefore afterwards he sang, I have confidently trusted in the Lord, and He has inclined to me and heard my cry ( Psalm 40:2 ).
Just as a loving father, when he sees that his son is living disorderly, chastens him; and when he sees that he is fainthearted and bears his punishment with difficulty, then he consoles him: so does our good Lord and Father act with us, using everything for our benefit, both consolation and chastisement, according to His love for mankind. Therefore, when we are in sorrow, like obedient children, we must thank God. For if we begin to thank Him only in prosperity, then we will be like the ungrateful Jews who, having eaten their fill of a wonderful meal in the desert, said that Christ was truly a prophet, wanted to take Him and make Him king, and when He said to them: Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, then they said to Him: What sign then will You show?... Our fathers ate manna in the desert ( John 6:27-31 ). The word falls directly on such people: although in life he blesses his soul, and they glorify You that You satisfy yourself, but he will go to the generation of his fathers, who will never see the light ( Ps. 48:19-20 ).
Therefore, the Apostle James teaches us: My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. Now let patience have its perfect work. And he adds: Blessed is the man who endures temptation: for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life ( James 1:2, 3, 4, 12 ).
About alms
One must be merciful to the poor and the strange; the great luminaries and fathers of the Church cared much about this.
In relation to this virtue, we must try by all means to fulfill the following commandment of God: Therefore be merciful, just as your Father is merciful ( Luke 6:36 ), also: I desire mercy, and not sacrifice ( Matthew 9:13 ).
The wise heed these saving words, but the foolish do not heed them; therefore the reward is not the same, as it is said: He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly; and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully ( 2 Cor. 9:6 ).
The example of Peter the Bread Giver (Chetyi Menaion, September 22), who for a piece of bread given to a beggar received forgiveness of all his sins, as was shown to him in a vision, may encourage us to be merciful to our neighbors: for even a small almsgiving contributes greatly to obtaining the Kingdom of Heaven.
We must give alms with a sincere disposition, according to the teaching of St. Isaac the Syrian: “If you give something to someone who asks for it, let the joy of your face precede your deed, and comfort his sorrow with good words” (Word 89).